Having seen only one side of the story, I don't know Dickey did, or
whether it was illegal or even uncool. But there are certain general
things I can say for certain:

1. The copyright holders of ncurses cannot retroactively deny any
party the right to change and distribute ncurses in accord with the
distribution terms that are published on it. A freedom which can be
summarily taken away is no freedom at all.

2. If someone has violated these distribution terms, that's a
different matter, since that is doing something for which permission
was never given.

3. None of you is authorized to delete files from prep.ai.mit.edu.

If I believe that ncurses 4.1 was made illegally, or if I conclude
that it's not good for the community, I'll stop the FSF's distribution
of it. But I am going to judge this for myself, after hearing both
sides.
Received on Fri May 30 1997 - 13:32:44 EDT